HABITAT RESTORATION

Many of the elders we work with recognise that their society has become more sedentary, with an increasing population and as a result, traditional grazing practices have changed. During their lifetimes they have observed environmental changes characterised by fewer grasses and more forbs, less water, bush encroachment and bare ground. Since the most serious threat to Grevy’s zebra is loss of habitat, addressing the escalating land degradation in northern Kenya is critical to the long term survival of the species.

This can be done through improved livestock management: by planning grazing the community can manage towards productive rangeland that can support livestock and wildlife throughout the year. We are working with Westgate Community Conservancy and the Northern Rangelands Trust to rehabilitate degraded land using livestock.

Grasslands & Grazers

The world’s grasslands evolved with the large grazing herbivores that lived on them. These immense herds kept grasslands healthy. Bunched together for protection against predators, their behaviour had the following effects on the landscape:

Tilling the soil with their hooves

Fertilising soil with dung and urine

Breaking down dead plant litter

This relationship can still be seen in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem with the vast migrating herds of wildebeest and plains zebra moving through the landscape.

We refer to this effect of animal hooves on plants and soils as “Animal Impact”. Animal Impact can be replicated by bunching large domestic herds of livestock to create the same effect. Similarly, we can create temporary “bomas” which are the thorn-fenced enclosures that livestock sleep in overnight. Bomas are particularly effective for rehabilitating bare ground.

Overgrazing

Overgrazing occurs when a plant is re-grazed too soon before its root system has had time to recover. Overgrazing results from the amount of time a plant is exposed to a grazing animal and not from the numbers of grazing animals on the land. If grazing is managed for the recovery time of plants then overgrazing can be avoided.

The combined action of pooling stock to create animal impact and allowing adequate time for the plants to recover leads to productive rangeland.

Climate Change

Land degradation (or biodiversity loss) is one of the main causes of global climate change as carbon bounces off bare soil and back into the atmosphere. By promoting covered soil in bare rangelands, we can harness carbon in the soil. Given that over 60% of the earth falls in arid or semi-arid climate zones, the global effect of ensuring carbon returns to the soil through re-establishing lost grasslands is significant.